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Cooking is something I love to do and have been doing since I was a young girl. I remember starting off being taught by my grandmother how to tend to a garden and how to cook food that grows with the seasons. Yet today they might say what is growing locally and in your area. I use to sit next to my grandmother in her lap snapping peas, and with my own mom as she taught me how to cut greens and make her famous homemade gravy.

I've become so attuned from being around food at and early age and seeing it grow out of the ground in front of my own eyes. Really gave me a respect for food and the value it holds. Because of that, I picked up on how to cook with my senses and from the heart. Which when you cook from the heart it becomes really some of the best cooking you will ever eat each and every single time.

With being able to cook from an early age I learned how to cook a lot quicker and make the same great food in a short amount of time and have it taste just as great. That is why I want to share with you this super simple easy shepherds pie recipe. Some people get turned off by making shepherds pie because they feel they have to do all those extra steps like cook the meat and peel the potatoes.

Now, you do have to cook the meat and peel the potatoes the only difference is that I only make shepherd's pie when I make smashed potatoes the day the before.

That's right I like smashed potatoes not the regular russet potatoes, they take way to long to peel and to big for me. I prefer the yellow golden taste of the Yukon gold potatoes. So in order to make this dish, you need to plan it out the day before by making mashed potatoes the day before and making enough for two separate meals. One for the dish the first night and enough to top the shepherd's pie the second night.

Once you have all that let's get started. 😉

I only make shepherd's pie in a cast iron skillet the meat cooks a lot quicker and I can just turn it into a one pot meal and transfer the whole dish to oven right afterward.

First, you need to add some chopped onion and olive in the skillet to saute down a bit. Next ground the meat (grass fed) preferred in the skillet. While the meat is browning you can add whatever meat seasonings you prefer, I like to use regular old of all seasons salt. Once the meat is cooked to your liking then add in some butter and a little bit of flour. Just enough to give it a little bit of texture and thicken it up a bit. I then pour in some beef broth a little extra salt and pepper and let it simmer down a bit just enough to thicken it up slightly a little more.

When it has simmered a bit I then add in the corn and peas for the shepherd's pie. Just enough to warm it up. Then finish the dish with the smashed Yukon potatoes skin and all I made the day before. I top the potatoes on top and load on the cheese. I like to use the organic Mexican shredded cheese package since it's loaded with different types of cheeses.

Pop that bad boy in the oven for about 10-15 minutes to heat up the toppings and melt the cheese.

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You know what I have a confession to make, I like to eat ice cream when it cold outside. There is nothing like dipping that spoon into a huge scoop of handmade ice cream on a nice winter day. I don't know why I do this or even when I started liking ice cream during the winter. The only thing I can say is that it's darn good and that I'm an Ice-cream fanatic, especially on a cold, cold day.

I remember during one of my pregnancy with my second son Austin all I wanted was Ice cream constantly day and night. My poor husband would go to the store for me like clockwork just to get me a pint of ice cream every single night. It got so frequent that when he would come home from work he would bring a pint of ice cream with him.

The strange thing is that all I wanted was strawberry cheesecake, all the time. Now I can't even look at that kind of ice cream or really even want to eat it. I'm more of a chocolate girl with lots of nuts mixed inside of it. I'm more of a cookie dough or Rocky road sort of girl, so when I took my boys out to Lake Eola with my husband on a cold day here in central, FL.

Which is quite rare you know for us Floridians.

I couldn't wait to get to take them to one of my favorite spots for handmade ice cream here inOrlando!Kelly's handmade ice cream is so good and my kids loved it too. At first, they were a little hesitant, and all they were telling me is “Who eats ice cream in the cold”? but I would let them know “I, do”.

As you can see, by the enjoyment in their faces that they loved Kelly's Handmade Ice- cream. However, I think they just liked the Ice cream because it was so good.

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So with the new year and with my new fitness goals, I am pushing myself to get into shape and regain my physical strength back. One way that I love to workout is at home. If you're a mom and if you work outside the home, sometimes it can be hard going to the gym, heck it's hard to even find time to go to the gym!

That is why I love working out with youtube fitness channels, for one many of them are free and you don't have to pay a subscription for. I remember growing up and fitness shows would come on in the morning in 30-minute intervals, and if you missed the show. Well too bad you were not able to record it and if you wanted to continue working out you had to buy some sort of fitness DVD. But not these days you can just stream all your fitness shows on the Roku, chrome cast or even your amazon firestick.

I have amazon prime, so I am able to view a lot of the fitness videos for free too!

I will have to say that youtube has some of the best youtube fitness channels hand's down compared to many! 😉

All you really need is some basic equipment like dumbbells, a workout mat, kettlebell and maybe even a jump rope. Who needs the gym right in the beginning when you can really start getting in shape right at home with youtube fitness channels.

Here are 20 of my favorite youtube channels for fitness that I love to workout with.

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Popsugar Fitness – Is one my favorite youtube fitness channels it features all sorts of new and advanced workout videos. These are not just beginner workouts but a little bit of something from the new to the more advanced at working out.

BodyFitByAmy– Another of my top favorites, Amy works out in her own home and does some serious kick your butt weightlifting and all over body type fitness stuff. Your body will love working out with Amy.

TheFitnessMarshall– If you're into dance and sort of good at it like I am.. Then you will love the fitness marshall. He has some fun really quick workout sessions that will leave you in a sweat. But don't worry the fitness marshall will walk you through each step, step by step. Literally!

Gymra – A collection of fitness videos all dedicated to different parts of the body, one might be only legs while another one only arms and some full body. Great for an all around workout routine.

Revfitrev– Is a fitness studio that is all about empowering women to get in shape and have fun while working out. Many of their videos are short and low impact and are really great to get into. So fun.

Shinedancefitness– One of my favorites for warming up with, they have tons of great dance workout videos that walk you through each move step by step and easy to do. So no worries, anyone can dance with Shine dance fitness.

Toneitup – Is a great one and who does not like the cool meal plans they have and the awesome girly workouts that vary for all levels. Tone it up brings the fun to working it out.

Bodyrocktv – Now if you're really adventurous and really can go the route and push yourself than Body rock t.v. just might work for you. This girl has some real abs of steel. I would love to have some Abs like that!

Sid vicious– Ok, so by now you know I love to dance, this girl is the truth and my total go to fitness channel when I really want to move and shake my but.

Fitness Blender- Is a total all around mash up of fun family friendly fitness videos with health and food tips along the way.

Befit-Features full-length workout videos from some of the most well know, like jane Fonda, Denise Austin, and Jillian Michaels

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This past weekend I was able to go and get my hair loc'd for my monthly wash and re-twist. There is nothing like going in and getting my hair and scalp massaged and reinvigorated. I love my monthly hair update and I love getting my strands re-twisted to look brand new and fresh. It has been 4 months now since I re-started my loc's and I will say it has been the best thing that I have done in a long time for my hair.

I will never go back again to loose natural hair at least not at the moment. 😉

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Well the new year has started and with it comes many new goals for 2017 that I would like to implement. Goal setting is great and its the one thing that will help to keep me accountable to myself and to the things I would like to accomplish. My goals for 2017 are not much but does help you to put things into focus and be able to visually see all that needs to completed.

My goals for 2017 are as follows:

Personal Goals:

Finish my Degree in Office Administration – I started my degree years ago before my kids were born and I have been taking classes every now and then for years. When you have kids its really easy to put things you started to the waist side and focus on your family first. And that is exactly what I did, but I just realized that I am only about three classes away from that goal. So I hope to have my degree sometime early in 2017.

Fitness – I would really love to get back into working out a ton more, I use to love to weight lift a ton before my kids were born and its something that really made me happy. I had a ton of muscle tone in the past, and it really helped me to do a lot of physical activities without getting tired to quick. To be able to jog or just walk more and incorporate more exercise into my daily routine would really help me to get into shape and get my body ready for a possible new baby.

Read More Books– I love reading books, but in the year of 2016 I did not read as many books as I planned to read and actually read more ebooks than a hardback. I would love to read one book a month this year that is not an ebook, but hardback. But If I have too I would love to invest in a kindle and read a ton of books on a paperwhite kindle. Maybe my hubby will get me one for our wedding anniversary.

Home- This year I plan on really going by room to room and revamping each one really cheaply. We currently rent at the moment and would like to buy another home in the near future. Not sure If it will be this year or next, depending on a couple of other factors were working on first. Like raising my husbands and I credit score and getting rid of some debt we both have. We did own a home once before but ended up selling it during the housing market crash years back. However, our landlord is really cool and will let us make some changes to the rooms like basic stuff. It's fine because we might actually buy the home were currently living in.

Financial Goals/Business:

Blogging – This year I plan to blog more and really get involved in a lot more groups and network more within the blogging community. I have high hopes for this blog and I really want to share more of myself and my family through weekly vlogs on youtube and post more on a weekly almost daily basis.

Credit and Debt – My husband I are working on paying down some debt we accumulate over the years and raising our credit score by getting rid of items that should not be there. We have been using this program call Credit Secret for the past couple of months now and I have raised both our scores equally by 100 points. All without using a creditor and doing it all ourselves.

Employees – We own a small car lot where we sell used cars and at the moment I am the main one that does the title work for my husband. I would love to hire and train someone to take over my role and replace me. So that I will not have to process all the extra paperwork anymore but focus more on the duties at home and growing my blog.

Create a Vision Board – I really want to make a vision board and give myself a visual representation of the goals I want to complete.

Family Goals:

Education – In 2017 I really plan to push my youngest son to get better at his spelling and really push his math skills. He has always struggled and picks up on things a little slower than my older kids. So I'm hoping to make some real gains before the summer time.

Addition to the Family – My husband and I if all goes well this year we might try to conceive another child before the end of the year.

I don't have a long list of goals but these goals do require some work to complete, and I'm hoping to come back and look at this list months from now to see how many of them actually get completed.